Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Originally Posted by Sushov23

Having been to this festival three times, my best guess for why they are eliminating tent/car camping is to avoid all the rowdiness on the polo grounds. The only thing I don't like about Stagecoach are the crowds.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Originally Posted by Bumblebee

Do hotels sell out every year for Stagecoach?

I don't think so. The attendance and demand isn't as big as it is for coachella. Another thing is people don't come down just for the hell of it, and book hotels like they do for coachella. There isn't much to do besides go to stagecoach.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Theyre going to have plenty to do now. Everyone is gonna get shit faced in their hotels and then go to the festival. Hotels and cab companies are going to get a bump in revenue that weekend now. And if they have the shuttle service like coachella, then theyre gold.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

There was a very successful country music festival in Merrit, BC called Merrit Mountain Music Festival. It started off pretty small, but got bigger and bigger every year. However, as it got bigger, the crowds became a major problem for the festival. Eventually the whole festival was cancelled because every year there were way too many drunken idiots in the campgrounds, the arrests were in the tripple digits and rape was in the double digits.

Looks like Stagecoach is trying to avoid the same fate.

Originally Posted by bmack86

And it's been long established that Chris hates fun.

Originally Posted by Hatinisbad

I took my niece this year and it was her first Coachella. It was so fun to see it through her eyes. She thought it felt like a magical scene from Shreck. The one where all the fairy tale creatures meet for the first time in Shreck's swamp.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Originally Posted by Sushov23

I highly doubt GV get a cut of the hotel sales. l

All hotel packages have their proceeds beyond the base price of the room/ticket go to GV. Several hotels block book virtually all their rooms to them for 3 weekends and the weekdays between Chellas. There are California laws limiting the price ceiling for direct hotel sales, that do not apply to GV because they are "packages". GV make millions here, far more than past years.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Originally Posted by rage patton

There was a very successful country music festival in Merrit, BC called Merrit Mountain Music Festival. It started off pretty small, but got bigger and bigger every year. However, as it got bigger, the crowds became a major problem for the festival. Eventually the whole festival was cancelled because every year there were way too many drunken idiots in the campgrounds, the arrests were in the tripple digits and rape was in the double digits.

Looks like Stagecoach is trying to avoid the same fate.

They were independent promoters. Meaning they had fewer connections and probably overpaid for talent. That also meant if there was a revenue short fall they'd be up sh!t creek big time. Fluctuations in the Canadian dollar in the 9 months between booking and showtime were another headache. The year that got cancelled had super low advanced sales.

I've heard lots of stories from friends that attended, many which encouraged me to stay away. I'm sure the name will come back at some point but with some big promoter attached. Just the festival name/brand might be worth 7 figures.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Amid a country song style-dustup spurred by changes in 2013 Stagecoach Country Music Festival’s camping restrictions, concert patriarch Paul Tollett insists that changes are necessary to control crowds and keep fans safer.

“We want people to have responsibility when they’re there,” Tollett said.

New rules exclude camping in tents, cars or rented recreational vehicles. Some fans have responded angrily to the changes and say they won’t return to the event. Some even pushed hard enough to urge a similar event that shut down two years ago to return as an alternative.

Tollett, head of concert promoter Goldenvoice, which puts on Stagecoach, said that he and his staff have been hearing from families who want to go to the festival, but complained that the experience isn’t what it was the first few years. Goldenvoice also stages the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and runs entertainment venues such as the Fox Theater in Pomona and the El Rey in Los Angeles.

The country music festival, which started in 2007 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, is one of the largest events of its kind and woos the genre’s biggest names. The 2013 festival, set for April 26-28, will include headliners Toby Keith, Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band.

As the event’s reputation and popularity grew, so did its aura of being a great party, with the music serving as only part of its allure. The campground has been the haven of red Solo cups, cold brews, games of beanbag toss and country music blasting through speakers, a party outside of the party inside.

The festival sold out its 55,000 tickets in advance for the first time in 2012, but camping spots sold out even faster.

A bigger party meant some bigger headaches — and organizers say it got out of control.

In 2012, 174 people were arrested at Stagecoach and there was a sexual assault of a 17-year-old, according to Indio police.

It was the first year Goldenvoice introduced Stagecoach’s code of conduct, which barred things such as public urination, nudity and irresponsible use of alcohol. The policy appeared online and festivalgoers had to acknowledge seeing it before they could purchase tickets. But that didn’t deter issues.

“When we went to go enforce it, we realized we needed to do some harder things to enforce that code of conduct,” Tollett said. “That leads us to this year.”

For 2013, tent and car camping have been discontinued and RV camping has been modified. No rental RVs are allowed. Each RV can contain no more than six fans. All guests must obey the festival’s rules of conduct or lose their camping privileges forever.

“The concept we’re thinking is like sports season tickets. (When you own season tickets), you know not to run on the field,” Tollett said.

He said at one point the festival’s organizers thought about not allowing camping at all in 2013.

Within hours of the new rules and lineup being posted on Tuesday, Oct. 9, angry fans lit up social media pages and the festival’s website forums with complaints about camping changes and the price increase for RVs. In 2012, RV camping ranged from $350-$850, before fees. For 2012, it will be $855 and $955.

Christine Tovar, of Riverside, is a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy who has attended Stagecoach for five years. She said her group of 11 trailers and 40-plus people are hitting the road for the Country Thunder festival in Arizona instead. She said four days of music with two general admission passes and a camping pass will cost $450.

Tovar’s group is a mix of those who own their own, rent and borrow RVs.

She said country fans are loyal fans who have often seen the acts multiple times, so Stagecoach is about more than music.

“For us, it’s more the atmosphere and getting away,” Tovar said.

She said in her five years, she had seen less than a handful of fights. Tovar suggested organizers add more law enforcement officials as security guards rather than limit the RV throngs.

While social-media posts called for fans and musicians to boycott the festival, some fans were more accepting of the festival’s decision.

“This past years Stagecoach was out of control. I saw a lot of bad behavior and not enough security to put a stop to it all. Security was greatly outnumbered and at times it got scary. It's supposed to be about the music and the fun inside the festival,” Regina Roberts Satz posted on Facebook.

In addition to the prices, others are upset about the exclusion of rental RVs.

Mike Bandfield, who owns Corona Motorhome Rentals in Norco, has had his inventory rented for Stagecoach hundreds of times since the festival’s inception, with many customers returning year after year. “They’ve been flawless,” he said.

However, he said the one year he rented to guests going to Coachella, one RV was trashed and he found marijuana in the other.

The exclusion of rented and borrowed RVs has some fans accusing Stagecoach of being classist, only wanting business from those whose boots are well-heeled. Tollett said such exclusions are the only way to enforce the rules.

Tollett said if someone had rented a motorhome and got the boot, they could just get a different RV — and have someone else rent it and drive it in.

“We want to have a one-on-one relationship with people who are bringing in an RV,” Tollett said. “So when there’s a problem with that person or with anyone in their six-person entourage, total, that we can go up to them, we know who they are, we know their RV number and if it’s a problem, remove them and remove them forever.”

Bandfield suggested that the festival require all guests to register and use the microchipped wristbands to apply the rules to everyone.

Backlash against Stagecoach may help revive another Inland hootenanny.

The Wagon Wheel Festival, held in Lake Elsinore in 2009 and 2010, has been enjoying rekindled support from fans.

Mike Davidson, of Redlands-based company Just Cruzin’ Productions, which put on Wagon Wheel as well as a number of car shows and cruises, said he’s been fielding calls from people wanting to buy tickets for his event, despite the fact it hasn’t existed for two years.

On Tuesday, a fan created a Facebook group called “Bring Back the Wagon Wheel Country Music Festival,” which already had upwards of 1,500 members 48 hours later. The demand has the company looking at bringing the festival back.

Wagon Wheel also hosted RV camping. Davidson said the RV camping was fully fenced and orderly, but said the event was much smaller than Stagecoach.

He said that he disagreed with Stagecoach’s camping changes because they exclude a number of fans just because they don’t have the means to own an RV — particularly the 18-to 30-year-old crowd.

Despite the protests from previous attendees, Tollett said the camping rules for 2013 will stand. However, he said they will watch and see what happens at the festival and respond accordingly in future years.

“It could go either way. It could be no camping next year or it could open up and we could double our camping and there’s tents. I don’t know,” Tollett said.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

Mike Bandfield, who owns Corona Motorhome Rentals in Norco, has had his inventory rented for Stagecoach hundreds of times since the festival’s inception, with many customers returning year after year. “They’ve been flawless,” he said.

However, he said the one year he rented to guests going to Coachella, one RV was trashed and he found marijuana in the other.

He had to clean up one RV and found some free weed in another after making thousands of dollars. Boo-hoo.

Re: Stagecoach Festival 2013

I am always dubious about those kinds of credits when there are 3rd party vendors to deal with. I've heard it can be a challenge to actually get your free meals at Fun Fun Fun Fest with your PIP vouchers too